Frankfurt

I got to enjoy an unexpected Frankfurt trip at the beginning of the month.  A co-worker was dropping her trip the morning of departure, so it was a last minute pick up.  It was a weekday departure so the crew was pretty senior.

I spent the afternoon wandering around Mainz, the little town where we layover.  Fall was in the air and it was nice to see leaves changing color.  It seems that in Texas, we just go from green to brown.  As a bit of background, Mainz is located along the Rhine River and lies west of Frankfurt.  Even with a population of almost 200,000 it still has the sleepy feel of a little village.  Mainz managed to major avoid bombing during WWII, so much of the original construction of the city still stands.

The highlight of my day of sightseeing was a visit to St. Stephen's Cathedral.  The original structure dates back to 990.  St. Stephen's is the oldest Gothic style church in the region.  The neatest part of the church is the Chagall stained glass windows.  This summer, I was hoping to see some of Chagall's work in Israel, but the building with the stained glass was under renovation.  Now I finally got to catch a glimpse of his work.  The windows were created between 1978 and 1995 and use a brilliant blue color.  The images are from the Old Testament, to mark the common threads between Judaism and Christianity.

I also visited the Gutenberg Museum, highlighting the life of the man who invented the modern printing press.  They even had one of the original Gutenberg Bibles on display.  The museum did not allow photography, so I was not able to take any pictures.

I met up with the crew in the early evening at a local wine bar for a few glasses of good wine and then we made our way to a great restaurant that everyone goes to, specializing in schnitzel.  I had the chicken schnitzel with white asparagus and hollandaise sauce.  Very tasty, but the heartburn that came with it a few hours later was a little rough!